How News UK And Other Top Brands Are Changing Their Strategies In 2017

Next week sees hundreds of strategy nerds get together for a big strategy get together (read: beardfest) aka Strategy & Innovation World Forum in London. I wanted to know how recent events have changed the way the speakers are thinking about strategy, use of data or impacted the thought-processes and strategic outlooks of the big names that are speaking (EE, Speedo, Adidas, Santander, Samsung, BT, Twitter, The Economist amongst others). Here are four very different views media, insurance and charity sectors:

Shannon Riley, Director, Strategy & Operations, News UK: "Data is not the all powerful tool we once thought. To those strategists who bemoan the idiot management team that could not implement their perfect strategy, beautifully presented in a 200 slide deck based on robust analysis conducted by expensive analysts in a dark room, I hope you are paying attention. Decisions are rarely made based solely on data, no matter how ‘unique’ the patented framework you ran it through. Firstly, humans are emotional beings, and secondly, data is never perfect or complete."

Parul Kaul-Green, Head of M&A & Innovation, AXA UK: "Recent geo-political events are not unprecedented or unforeseen for strategists in any industry. Whilst long-standing companies are certainly wary of anti-establishment sentiment more generally, political change only has a marginal impact on customers’ day to day interactions with companies like AXA. Technological development, on the other hand, has a far more profound effect. Rapid deployment of Artificial Intelligence, the internet of things and unprecedented global connectivity are the key drivers of long-term strategy and our future success. The pace of change in this environment along with evolving customer behaviour dictates that our business model must adapt and do so with ever greater agility.”

Katherine Crisp, Head of Strategy & Innovation, Unicef UK: 2016 has seen crystal balls smashing around the world, from strategists to pollsters to betting shops. So what can we learn from this year (or era?) of unpredictability? Firstly, listen deeply to your audience across different channels (old and new). Secondly, don’t try and answer the ‘how’ up front - your strategy needs a vision and the building blocks, but needs the flexibility to iterate and adapt quickly. Thirdly, real-time data matters...don’t just collect it; analyse and use it to course correct."

Jame Credland, SVP, Strategy, The Economist: "If anything, the events of 2016 have demonstrated that we are pursuing the right commercial strategy - to create the strongest editorial product we can and focus on building an audience of paying subscribers. In a changing world, readers are increasingly looking for quality journalism to make sense of it. The day after Trump was elected we had our best day ever for new subscription starts. There are still challenges for the industry in terms of ad revenues and moving onto new platforms, but the news agenda has proved a boost for quality publishers everywhere."